IT IS RATHER AMUSING to read in the newspapers where The Minister of Health has again said that the building of a new general hospital is still in the pipeline and that he has been looking around for an appropriate area.
Is the minister aware of all the Government buildings that are either derelict or falling apart while the Government is renting from outside sources?
Why do our Governent Ministers always seem so keen to abandon buildings and build new ones? Can we not find ministers who are willing to do a proper job by maintaining our Government buildings?
How come we can visit places like London, England for medical reasons and can receive world-class treatment in buildings that are over one hundred years old and older?
I agree that the hospital could do with an expansion. So why not use the land that is next to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for that reason and upgrade the existing building. It only takes a little common sense to know that if the buildings were properly maintained, there would be no need for always building new buildings.
What about St Joseph Hospital? That is another disgrace that such a beautiful hospital was left in ruins and no government saw it fit to restore it back to the point where it could be used for the population that side of the island and help take some of the strain off the QEH.
Where is all of this money coming from to be talking of becoming a republic, the millions set aside for the fiftieth anniversary of Independence celebrations, houses that no one is living in, the Cahill project and now building a new hospital? For heaven’s sake, they cannot even find the money to pave the area where visitors to the QEH have to park their vehicles because that is a disgrace where we have to be driving in deep holes and tree roots to park our cars when we are visiting there.
This all brings to mind an old saying I often heard my grandmother with and that is “There is more in the mortar than the pestle”.
– ANNETTE LASHLEY
